Franklin Gutierrez has recovered enough from a torn pectoral muscle that he’s resumed swinging a bat, but the Mariners center fielder has not been cleared to throw yet and Geoff Baker of the Seattle Timesreports that he won’t accompany the team to Japan later this week.

Gutierrez’s best-case scenario is probably a late-April debut, so not going to Japan doesn’t mean a whole lot in terms of his timetable, but he was unsure when asked when he’ll resume throwing:

I can’t throw. Not now. I don’t know when it’s going to happen. Just doing the exercises. I don’t know when I’m going to be playing. It just depends on how fast I recover.